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Microsoft will contribute to Open edX’s new “Cypress” release by adding Office 365 authentication functionality into edX’s single sing-on system as well as a new XBlock, the “File Storage” XBlock, which allows to insert or embed files from One Drive and other providers.

[Disclosure: IBL worked under contract with Microsoft in this development].

EdX has introduced to the Open edX codebase the ability for instructors to write feedback that it associated with each answer option for both correct and incorrect answers. This feedback is presented to the learner when the answer is submitted.

The code is present on the master branch of edx-platform, and will be included in the codebase of the upcoming Cypress release.

This hinting and feedback feature allows professors to construct richer, interactive activities that allow students to engage directly with concepts and receive immediate formative feedback in ways that are difficult or impractical in traditional classroom instruction.

It is possible for learners who are having difficulties with a problem to request help in the form of one or more hints.

For some problems, a single hint may be sufficient.

In more difficult problems, several levels of hints can be provided.

This kind of help is especially important in free-form questions such as text input or numerical input. In these types of questions, learners are not able to guess at the answer and may struggle to find the path to the problem solution.

This feature has been contributed by the Open Learning Initiative (OLI) at Stanford University, a grant-funded organization that collaborated with edX and Open edX community.

The badges can be awarded from a “Graded Sub-section” in a course in Open edX. The instructor sets the minimum score for the eligibility of the badge, and configures the badge component with the data of the badge service, badge ID, custom messages for the user, etc.

Once it’s added to a Graded Sub-section, the open-badges XBlock will automatically check the user’s score in that sub-section (when the user enters the sub-section).

While the user does not have a high-enough score for eligibility, the XBlock will display a custom message indicating that this is the case.

Once the user has a high-enough score, the XBlock will reveal the badge image and the input fields to claim the badge.

Once awarded, the badge becomes privately available in the user’s account on the badge service. The user then “claims” the badge to make it public (this is the normal operation of open-badge services.)

The fact that Open edX is available in the AWS Marketplace has been highlighted by edX in a recent press release.

However, it is worth remembering that pre-installed images have been provided by edX on Amazon.

Some users in the developer community have noted that Bitnami’s solution is “disappointing, not responsive and no-go for clients”. Ubuntu 14.04.01 on Open edX is truly experimental. “Regular installations are full of problems, so who needs to experiment with a new Ubuntu”, said David C.

EdX has partnered with the National Summer Learning Association (NSLA) to offer a special selection of high-quality, free courses to combat summer learning loss and avoid returning in the fall with atrophied skills.

This offer includes more than 60 courses from top institutions in core subjects such as math, science, and language as well as skills-based courses in software development, computer science and innovation.

These courses are ideal for career-minded high schoolers (who are dealing with their AP exams and college admissions), college-age students, and working professionals.

Badgr, written in Python by the new Badge Alliance Director Nate Otto, has been released. This is another great badging initiative that comes to the edX universe, in addition to BadgeOne.

Badgr Serverprovides an API for issuing Open Badges and handles badge management for issuers, earners and consumers.

According to its GitHub page, “it will soon provide integrated badge management and sharing for badge earners and tools for inspection, exploration and discovery of Open Badges and a world of learning opportunities.”

The edX.org portal plans to use this server, along with the badge XBlock developed by IBL Studios. EdX’s portal blog and Concentric Sky –the company that Nate Otto works for– posted this week describing their collaboration.

The Open edX community portal has started a web page to acknowledge open source contributors of the Open edX platform. Some contributions are significant: large features, major upgrades, high-risk security bugs…

This Hall of Fame of contributors is not complete, and that is why edX encourages people to submit their commits.

BadgeOne is the first free, fully open-source, OBI-compliant, multi-language open-badges server. Available in Github since mid-June for any site administrator to download and install, this badge server is operable with Open edX and LMS platforms. It is written in PHP and requires only an Apache server and standard web technologies.

The BadgeOne server was developed by IBL Studios, with GW Professor Lorena A. Barba in an advisory role, and with financial and technical support from edX.

Along with the badge server, IBL and edX have developed an XBlock that allows connecting securely an Open edX platform with the badge server. Other badge providers will be supported in the future. The XBlock—to be released soon—was thoroughly revised and extended from a prototype written for Prof. Barba’s Fall 2014 MOOC.

Amnesty International will offer a series of MOOCs about human rights education on edX.org, starting in Fall 2015. The first course, “Reclaiming Freedoms through human rights”, will be followed by others over the next several years.

“From the seasoned activist who wants to learn more about human rights, to the technology entrepreneur whose interest has been piqued by the surveillance and privacy debate, these new courses will have something for everyone,”explained edX and Amnesty International.

The goal of the two organizations is to establish the largest online platform for human rights education globally, starting with more than 4 million learners from every country registered on edX.org. “Our global platform will be an ideal place for the organization to amplify its message of justice for all,” edX said.

In order to develop a course relevant to learners, Amnesty International –who has become edX’s newest member– has set up a survey to determine what kind of course would be of value to users.

“Home institutions do not grant credit to their edX courses. For example, I can audit The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours class for free, but if I want course credit, I will have to enroll in a semester-long Harvard Extension course, which costs between $1250 (for noncredit or undergraduate credit) or $2200 (for graduate credit).”

“Participants will spend most of their time in Courseware, which begins with a left-aligned overview. Lessons are divided into sections, sections into learning sequences, and learning sequences into units. Participants navigate through units using arrows at the top of the screen. I found this process somewhat inorganic at first, and I would have preferred something like Coursera’s auto-progression; however, once I adjusted to it, I actually preferred the edX structure because it allowed you to anticipate forthcoming content via the object icons.”

“edX offers the most versatile toolkit. In addition to multiple-choice, tick boxes, and fill-in-the-blanks, edX supports specialized tools such as circuit simulators and chemical bond simulators. DemoX showcases some of the most ingenious assessments, including those designed for the K-12 market (e.g. a drag and drop tool for counting) and introductory sciences (an interactive periodic table).”